Addressing the Maintenance of Certification Crisis Calls for Working Together.

U nless you are part of the 5% of cardiologists who noted in a recent College-wide survey that they are “not at all familiar” with the new Maintenance of Certification (MOC) requirements from the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), you have undoubtedly heard about what has now been termed by many as the “MOC crisis” (MOC survey distributed by U.S. American College of Cardiology [ACC] chapters to chapter members from April 9, 2015, to May 4, 2015; a total of 3,380 completed surveys were submitted by ACC members). There continues to be much confusion, anger, and frustration over MOC. What is fact and what is fiction? What role can the ACC play in the certification/recertification process? How did we get here, and what is the ACC doing about this mess now? The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) was established in 1933. Its mission is “to serve the public and the medical profession by improving the quality of health care through setting professional standards for lifelong certification in partnership with Member Boards” (1). Three years later, the ABIM was formed in 1936 under the ABMS umbrella to establish more uniform standards for physicians and to answer a need from the public interest. ABMS sets the policy and ABIM (or the other subordinate organizations) are left to interpret and implement the policies. Last year, the ABIM instituted widespread changes and a radical set of new requirements and standards for MOC. The modifications apply to all physicians, including those who received lifetime certification prior to 1990. Suffice it to say, the extreme revision of standards sparked—and continues to spark—heated and immediate responses from across all ABIMcovered physician specialties. Part of the fire has to